Grilled vegetables from the farmers market shine in this vegetarian orzo pasta salad, perfect as a side dish or meatless main.
Grilled Vegetable Orzo Pasta Salad
This delicious pasta salad is made with grilled vegetables tossed with orzo, fresh tomatoes, basil, and vinegar and oil. It’s an easy lunch to prep ahead for the week or served as a side dish with anything you’re grilling. Some other orzo recipes you should try are this Orzo with Zucchini and Tomato and Shrimp Scampi with Broccoli Orzo.
This 3-piece grill pan (affil link) set is so useful for grilling vegetables all summer long.
Is orzo pasta?
Yes! Orzo is a rice-shaped pasta that you cook in a pot of boiling water. Since we’re adding it to a cold salad for this recipe, rinse the orzo under cold water after draining it.
Orzo Salad Ingredients:
I used fresh vegetables that I found at the farmers market in this orzo salad, but feel free to swap any of them out if you find something that looks delicious at your market.
- Cherry tomatoes
- Red onion
- Yellow bell pepper
- Red bell pepper
- Zucchini
I grilled all of the veggies in a grill basket except for the tomatoes. If you don’t have a grill, a grill pan or broiler works great too.
How long does orzo salad last in the fridge?
This orzo salad will last in the fridge for four to five days, making it great for meal prep.
Variations:
- You can substitute the orzo with another type of small pasta, like elbow, farfalle, or orecchiette.
- Add goat or feta cheese to the salad.
- Swap the zucchini with yellow squash or the red onion with shallot.
- Feel free to switch out the cherry tomatoes with grape tomatoes.
- For an extra vegetable, throw in some chopped spinach.
- If you want more fresh herbs, use parsley or oregano.
More Pasta Salad Recipes You’ll Love:
- Greek Pasta Salad
- Summer Pasta Salad with Baby Greens
- Warm Pasta Salad with Corn and Zucchini
- Balsamic Roasted Veggie and White Bean Pasta
- Summer Macaroni Salad with Tomatoes and Zucchini
Grilled Vegetable Orzo Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups uncooked orzo pasta, wheat or gluten-free
- 1 cup chopped cherry tomatoes
- 1 clove minced garlic
- extra virgin olive oil spray
- 1 small red onion, quartered
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced into 4 pieces
- 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and sliced into 4 pieces
- 1 large, 10 ounce zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds
- kosher salt
- black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup chopped basil
Instructions
- Cook orzo in salted water according to package directions; drain and rinse under cold water, transfer to a large bowl and combine with tomatoes and 1 tablespoon of the oil and garlic.
- Meanwhile spray the onions, bell peppers and zucchini with olive oil; season with 1 teaspoon salt and black pepper, to taste.
- Grill vegetables on a grill basket over oiled grates, covered, (or broil 4 inches from flame) 10-12 minutes or until lightly charred and tender, turning halfway.
- Set aside on a cutting board to cool slightly, then dice into 1/2-inch pieces.
- Toss with the remaining olive oil and vinegar and top with chopped basil.
This is delicious! I cooked the vegetables in my air fryer. It’s great as a side or I make it a meal by adding chicken or fish.
This is a light and delicious side dish for your summer BBQ. I roasted the vegetables in the air fryer for 10-12 minutes and it worked great!
Delicious!!!!!
Love this recipe!!! It is very easy and delicious 😋. I use whatever veggies I have on hand. My 18 year old daughter loves it and will eat it as a snack.
I agree with everyone else about adding feta cheese. You won’t regret it.
Thanks Gina!
Made this by roasting the veggies in the oven. Served with Skinnytaste Grilled Chicken. Great pairing and we had plenty of leftovers all week. It keeps well in the fridge.
Delicious and light salad. Adaptable to use whatever vegetables are available. Roast if you can’t grill. Top with salmon or chicken for a complete meal. Feta is a yummy addition.
So good. Who knew such simple ingredients would give such a tasty salad. Yum! Thank you for this and all the other delicious, easy, healthy recipes!
Light and fresh summer side dish – added a bit of feta and served with grilled chicken.
This was really delicious- my husband and I both LOVED it! We added grilled chicken and salmon to ours as a protein and the only other addition was extra lemon and balsamic glaze
Another great recipe to add to my go to list. You never disappoint! Thank you!
I made this last night for dinner with grilled chicken. Both were delicious. I did add some crumbled feta. I will definitely make again.
What a delicious and easy salad. I broiled my veggies and added the suggested feta as well. It was just what I was looking for to have ready all week for my lunch.
Delicious!!
Really good and easy! I did a ton of S&P on my veggies to make sure there was flavor in every bite. Added an extra tbsp of red wine vinegar and omitted the tomato as I didn’t have any. Will definitely make again!
Perfect summer side! Simple to make and so much flavor. Added the feta suggestion.
Can I use just fresh vegetables instead of grilling or roasting them ?
WOW this was so simple and delicious! Roasted my veggies, and added the feta suggestion. Excellent, simple, wholesome!
Delicious! I love the flavors, the fresh vegetables and the dressing is very light. This is a definite make again!
This is outstanding. I wanted to save some time and roasted my vegetables in my Foodi, precutting so I didn’t need to wait for everything to cool to cut. I took this to a birthday party, and it was a huge hit. I used Dellalo gluten free orzo, and I found this to be so deliciously satisfying.
I’ve made this recipe several times and played around with it. I’ve added spinach, broccoli, carrots, chickpeas, feta, goat cheese, cilantro, and other things in various combinations. I’ve used orecchiette, farfalle, and orzo. I’ve never actually grilled the veggies since I don’t have a grill, so I always roast them instead. My point is that this recipe is a great jumping off point to play around with (and to clean out your fridge and pantry). Cook any pasta, grill/roast any veggies, add any protein, mix with any oils and vinegars, garnish with any fresh herb. Serve warm, cold, or room temp. You can’t go wrong. Thanks for this one!
Just made this and it was amazing! Thank you so much!❤️
Another winner! This recipe had such simple ingredients but was full on flavour. Even my meat eater husband loved it. I broiled the veggies in the oven and added a little lemon juice and feta.
I have whole wheat orzo pasta which I get from Wegmans. Would the points go down under WW purple plan, since whole wheat pasta is 0 pts?
I felt like there wasn’t much flavor with just the red wine vinegar and olive oil so I added some lite Italian dressing and feta with my serving and it was delicious.
My take will add points, but i cook the orzo, then use: frozen corn, feta, cherry tomatoes, diced cucumber, red onion. Dressing is olive oil and the fresh juice of a lemon, plus grated rind, pepper, and salt. The key is to meld well, no less than two hours in the fridge.
Almond slivers added to individual servings, perfection.
We all liked this salad – used it for dinner one night and had enough for lunch the nest day. While we are working our way into eating mostly vegetarian meals, so added no meat, we all thought it would be delicious with some shrimp added. This will definately be added to our rotation.
This was delicious.
I made this as a side dish and everyone raved. I already have a request to bring this to a BBQ. One important step is that you add 1tbsp of oil to the pasta. The dressing is 2tbsp oil : 2 tbsp vinegar. I overlooked that and ended up having to add an additional tbsp of vinegar. But since the pasta absorbs the dressing i will make a little more dressing anyway. Also while I like orzo I will try this the next time with a larger pasta such as orchiaetta.
Can you swap out the orzo for Israeli/pearl couscous?
This was so delicious. Grilling the vegetables really enhanced their flavor. It’s so versatile, you can really add whatever veggies/pasta you have on hand. I added fresh sweet corn and skipped the tomatoes because my husband doesn’t like them. We had plenty leftover for lunch throughout the week. Definitely adding this to the dinner rotation!
This was easy and probably the best pasta salad we have had! So fresh
Just made this for the first time for a girls’ night at the lake tomorrow to serve with grilled salmon. I sneaked a taste and it’s SO GOOD! I grilled the veggies outside and it was so worth the extra step to get the added flavor. I added a couple spoonfuls of feta as suggested. Can’t wait to share it.
So delicious! I made the recipe exactly as written and wouldn’t change a thing! We had this with the Bourbon Chicken for a Memorial Day BBQ and had lots of positive comments from our guests! I loved that this can be made ahead! Made my party something I could relax and enjoy too!
Perfect!
Made this today, it’s DELISH definitely a keeper 🙂 thank you for this delicious recipe 💗☀️🌺
This was delicious! I added more roasted vegetables and a tablespoon of feta for a lunch portion… will make again!
Is this served cold or warm? Sounds delicious!
I served it warm because the veggies were still warm. The leftovers are just as delicious cold!
I served at room temperature. Had it the next day for lunch and it was even better because the flavors had a chance to blend. Grilling the veggies is definitely the way to go and I would do that before cooking the pasta.
Made this exactly as written; what can I say? DELICIOUS! Everyone loved it. Will definitely make this again. And again😋
Can you recommend a good electric grill?
So I can grill indoors in the winter.
I use the Le Crueset grill pan.
Everyone loved it (even the littles!). This will be my new go-to summer side dish. So good! I added some grated asiago cheese at the end!
Is it the Orzo that makes this salad 7 points? Everything else in the recipe should be 0 points, right? Thanks!
Delicious! I added some grilled shrimp as well. The grilled flavor of the veggies really makes this dish.
This was fantastic! Very easy to make and very refreshing. I added lemon garlic grilled chicken to the salad and it made the perfect meal!!
I noticed you had some affiliate links in here for an awesome char-broil set. Do you have a wedding registry list for your cook books for utensils or tools you need? I almost exclusively cook SkinnyTaste meals and want all the tools!
Can the vegetables be roasted? If so, how long and at what temperature?
You could probably add some hemp hearts or well rinsed white beans to punch up the protein without skewing the flavor.
Looks delicious! Can you substitute rice for the pasta to make it gluten free? Gluten free pasta does not usually hold up for salads. Maybe basmati rice for a nice texture?
I’d probably use quinoa instead.
Made this and it was very tasty – added more spices, few kalamata olives, lemon juice and feta at the end. Very good recipe, as usual!
Beautiful summer week dinner ! Budget friendly also since I can take the leftovers ( if any ) to office next day ! Must do !